After 39 Years, a Prison Inmate Pleads for Clemency

Greg Mingo turns 68 this Sunday.

However, as things currently stand, he will not be released from prison before 2031, fifty years after he was arrested and eventually convicted for a double murder in Queens.

Mingo insists he is innocent, and is petitioning Gov. Andrew Cuomo for clemency. He is being assisted by his sister, his niece and a multiracial coalition of supporters that has been mobilized in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests.

"Sometimes you need allies who have the resources and the means to get you where you want to go," said his sister, Evonne Nemes, "and if that means a group of people that maybe in the past you maybe would not have counted on or thought you could trust, you need to put that aside."

Mingo himself has been inspired by the national protests and increased attention to racial disparities in the criminal justice system.

"I think if you ask anybody -- black, white, blue, green -- I think everybody would be in unanimous opinion that these times feel different," he said.

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